WRC
Rally Australia: Kronos Racing leg one summary
Xevi Pons and Carlos Del Barrio have held their own throughout an extremely difficult opening leg. The Spanish Kronos Total Citroen crew are in a provisional third place overall : a position they hope to defend to the end of the rally. The drivers ...
Published: Oct 28, 2006, 5:27 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Xevi Pons and Carlos Del Barrio have held their own throughout an extremely difficult opening leg. The Spanish Kronos Total Citroen crew are in a provisional third place overall : a position they hope to defend to the end of the rally.
The drivers knew that they were starting the leg with the most difficult stages of the day : two runs each through Murray North and South. These roads situated about 100 kilometres to the south of Perth have a fearsome reputation. They combine the three riskiest elements of Rally Australia : high speed (nearly a 110kph average despite several junctions), narrow roads (with trees close by), and last but not least, a thick coating of marble-like stones...
The pitfalls are well-known, but the Murray stages still claimed several high- profile victims, slashing the World Rally Car field. The only driver who stopped on these stages through no fault of his own was Dani Sordo, who was forced onto the sidelines with a gearbox problem. Dani could only sit and watch as he clocked up a penalty of five minutes for every stage missed, in accordance with the superally rules. This means that he will start leg two with a 40 minute gap to the leader, in the hope of making up enough ground to score some manufacturer points.
Xevi Pons and Carlos Del Barrio managed to find the right rhythm to survive this difficult day, without succumbing to the temptation to push too hard. "I think we can be happy, " said the Spaniard. " With a perfect Xsara and the right tyre choice [BFGoodrich medium/soft compound] I forced myself to stay concentrated and follow the right line. It might not be the most fun way to drive, but it's essential in order to stay off the `marbles'. Everything was going well until the final forest stage, Flynns. There, with the sunset in our eyes, we lost a lot of time in the dust from the cars ahead. In some sections we were driving blind. "
"In any case we are still third, " concluded Xevi. " Tomorrow's stages in the Bunnings complex are wider so they are easier and a lot more fun to drive. I'm going to try to stick to the pace we had today and avoid making mistakes. I had a good feeling after Cyprus and my confidence grew even more after the Rally of Turkey. Thanks to all that, I hope to carry tonight's objective through to the end of the rally: holding onto third place. "
-credit: kronos racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rally Australia: Ford leg one summary
Next article Rally Australia: Leg one summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
9 h
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 9 h
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
9 h
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 10 h
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe